Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/500

Rh 460 NEW YORK [CITY. deal of the chief source of their early prosperity, at once began to show itself, and has apparently lost none of its force since the railways came into use to supplement or supersede the canals. In considering New York as a commercial port, the popu lation of several suburbs within 10 or 15 miles radius should be taken along with it. Including only that of Brooklyn (556,663) and of Jersey City (120,722), the total would be 1,883,684. Of the 1,206,299 forming the population of the municipality of New York proper in 1880, 478,670, or nearly one-third, were of foreign birth. Of these 163,482 were Germans and 198,595 Irish, forming together by far the largest and most important part of the foreign element. Of the total population, 336,137 are males above the voting age, and the females exceed the males by about 25,000. In the native Ameri can population, amounting to 727,629, there are 647,399 natives of the State of New York, only 80,330 coming from other States. New Jersey furnishes the largest contingent, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Connecticut following next, though every State and Territory in the Union contributes something. There are no means of ascertaining the proportion of the inhabitants born within the city limits ; it is probably smaller than even in London or Paris. The heterogeneous character of the population, however, so largely composed of persons who come from widely different parts of the globe to seek their fortune, while infusing great energy into commercial and industrial operations, has had an unfortunate effect on the municipal life of the place. It has prevented the growth of a healthy local pride among the successful men of business, many of whom labour with the intention of passing their closing years elsewhere, a sentiment particularly strong among the prosperous New Euglanders, whose affections are very apt to be fixed on the place of their birth. The result is that, considering the very large fortunes which have been made in the city during the last century, it has profited but little, compared with others in America, by the gifts or endowments of its wealthy men. The same cause has operated to some extent to prevent hearty co-operation in municipal affairs. The inhabitants of the different nation alities live much apart, both in politics and in society. The Germans, whose social life is very active, give but little attention to local politics, although they form, owing to their intelligence, order, and industry, a very valuable element in the population. Germans head a good many of the principal banking and commercial houses. A considerable proportion of those settled in New York are skilled artisans; cabinetmaking and upholstering in particular are largely in their hands. They supply also most of the music of the city, do nearly all its brewing and a considerable portion of its baking, and furnish a very large contingent in the work of all the leading manu factures. They supply comparatively few of the domestics of either sex, or of the manual labourers. Difference of language, combined with the absence of political training at home, keeps the Germans from taking a very active part in politics, except to resist some of the attempts at restrictive legislation directed against their beer drinking and Sunday amusements, which the American temperance advocates frequently make. As a rule it may be said that the prominent Germans in the city, like the Catholic Irish, belong to the Democratic party. The port of New York is the great gateway for immigrants coming to the United States. Of the 7,892,783 immigrants who have come to the country from the years 1855 to 1882 inclusive, 5,169,765 have landed at New York city. The largest number landed there in one year was 476,086 in 1882. Germany sends the greatest number, Ireland eoming next, England third, and Sweden fourth. From 1847 to 1881 inclusive the German immigrants arriving in New York have numbered 2,498,595; the Irish, 2,171,982; the English, 834,328; and the Swedish, 208,505. The total number of immigrants landed at New York during the years 1858 to 1862 inclu sive was 404,918; from 1863 to 1867 it was 1,009,641 ; from 1868 to 1872, 1,209,011 ; from 1873 to 1877, 614,219; in 1878 it was 75,347 ; in 1879, 135,070; in 1880,327,371; in 1881, 455,681; in 1882,476,086; and in the first six months of 1883 it was 257,635. The Irish emigrants who settle in New York are to a considerable extent a deposit left by the stream of emigration which enters the country at that port. The more energetic and thoughtful, and those who have any money, push on to the west ; the penniless and the shiftless are apt to stay where they land, and furnish the city with most of its unskilled labour, although of late years they have been exposed to considerable competition from Italians, mainly from southern Italy. The resource of a large number of the more pushing is apt to be liquor dealing, which generally brings them influence in ward politics, and secures recognition from the party leaders as a means of communicating with and controlling the rank and file. The great body of the porters and waiters in the hotels and second-class restaurants, of the carters and hackney-coach drivers, a large proportion of the factory workers, and almost the entire body of household servants are Irish also, and for the most part a saving and industrious body. The social life of New York in the earlier days, and, in fact, down to 1825, took its tone from the landholding aristocracy. Social traditions were, however, principally Dutch, and were characterized by the simplicity and frugality of that people. As the place grew in wealth and population, the ascendency of the old Dutch families was gradually lost. The successful commercial men who came to New York from all parts of the country became the real local magnates, and business prosperity became the chief sign and cause of social distinction. This state of things still exists. There is no other city in the United States in which money gives a man or woman so much social weight, and in which it exercises so much influence on the manners and amusements, and meets with so little com petition from literary, artistic, or other eminence. The luxury of domestic life is carried to a degree unequalled in any other city. The entertainments are numerous and costly, and the restaurants, of which Delmonico s is the chief, have achieved a world-wide fame. The number of horses and equipages has greatly increased within twenty years under the stimulus given by the opening of Central Park, the drives of which on fine after noons in April and May and the early part of June present a scene of great brilliancy. The city is, however, almost completely deserted during the summer months by the wealthy, who fly to country houses along the coast from New Jersey as far up as the province of New Brunswick, or to the mineral springs of Saratoga, or to Europe. Thirty years ago it was the ambition of rich men to own country houses along the Hudson river, the scenery of which possesses great grandeur, but its banks have of late been infested by malaria, and for this and other reasons the tide of fashion has been turned to the seaside, and more particularly to Newport in Rhode Island, which is now a city of marine villas. For people of small means New York is slenderly provided with summer entertain ments, except such as are afforded by the beauty of the suburbs and by the many water-side resorts within easy reach on the Hudson, the New Jersey coast, and Long Island Sound, and especially at Coney Island, which is really a continuation of the sandy beach that extends all